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Oil Kings coach stays out of the Twitterverse: Old school coach considers that form of social media unproductive

Evan Daum, Edmontonjournal.com April 5, 2012

EDMONTON – Derek Laxdal may be a familiar name in the hockey world, but in the Twitterverse, the Edmonton Oil Kings head coach is a virtual nobody.

With countless athletes and coaches jumping into the social media deep end with Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, Laxdal is a throwback of sorts, preferring to live life in the real world and not in 140 characters or less.

“Personally, I find guys that are tweeting and texting, they’re checking their phones 24/7. It’s almost addictive. They all want to be heard, they want to see what’s going on. I don’t think it’s very productive,” Laxdal said of social media.

“I watch the kids, I key in on it and watch people on Twitter. They’ve always got their phones in their hands. You always see people at stoplights, they’re checking their phones and I just think it’s a distraction. I think it takes away from being a productive citizen.”

Fellow Oil Kings Twitter holdout Dylan Wruck has also yet to join the more than 500 million global users of Twitter.

As one of the shrinking number of players around the Western Hockey League not using the micro-blogging site that was launched in 2006, pressure from Wruck’s teammates to jump on the bandwagon continues to grow.

“The guys kind of get on me about not having Twitter, but I just haven’t gotten to it yet,” Wruck said. “I’m not too big into that type of stuff, but they’ve been pushing it hard on me lately, so I might have to get it.”

Oil Kings assistant coach Steve Hamilton finds social media a useful tool.

“I think it’s an opportunity for people to get a sense of some of the personalities on our team. It’s the kind of thing where you share what you want to share and I use it almost strictly for showing a sense of humour and commenting on things,” Hamilton said. “It’s light-hearted. I enjoy following the guys, I enjoy different guys around the league. It’s one of those things I never thought I’d really embrace, but I think times are changing and it’s important as a coach to stay a little bit relevant in terms of all the social media and things like that.”

Oil Kings manager of communications Ryan Ohashi previously worked for the Lethbridge Hurricanes, an organization that, at the time, didn’t allow players to use Twitter.

“I think it’s great for players. For a long time, especially, when you look at NHL players, you didn’t have an opportunity to market yourself as well, because it’s not marketed as an individual sport in that way,” Ohashi said. “I think it’s a great chance for a lot of guys who wouldn’t have a whole lot of spotlight to push their own personality and really get that out there.

“It’s a little different with our group of guys. They’re 16- to 20-years-old type of thing, so it’s a little different dynamic. We try and treat them as professionals, but they’re not quite there yet, so a lot of times you have to be a little guarded.”

With the pitfalls of Twitter well known not only in sports, but the public world in general, Ohashi tells players to be aware of social media’s ability to impact more than just a select few.

“What we tell our guys more than anything on content is we want them to be themselves, we want them to put it out there, but at the same time, they know what’s right and wrong,” Ohashi said. “I always tell the guys more than anything it’s not so much what you’re saying, it’s who you’re saying it to. As long as you’re aware of your audience and you’re aware that when you put something out there it’s not just to the people who follow you, it’s to the whole world.”

As for when the world will finally hear from Laxdal on Twitter, Hamilton doesn’t expect that to happen anytime soon.

“I don’t think we’ll ever see Derek on Twitter, but we’ve got some names crafted up for him. We’re just waiting for him to sign up. I think he’d enjoy it, but he’s a little old school when it comes to that,” Hamilton said with a laugh.

“Maybe it’s old school, but personally I find it’s unproductive, it’s distracting and you know what, I’m a technical guy. I like the IT stuff, but that’s just one thing I don’t buy into,” Laxdal said.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
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